I made an Emacs extension that displays Magic: the Gathering card tooltips
This post is about the niche intersection of Emacs and Magic: the Gathering. I considered not writing this because I figured, surely if you multiply the...
AI Safety Landscape & Strategic Gaps
https://mdickens.me/2025/09/19/ai_safety_landscape/ I wrote an article giving a high-level review of what work people are doing in AI safety. My report...
AI Safety Landscape and Strategic Gaps
I wrote a report giving a high-level review of what work people are doing in AI safety. The report specifically focused on two areas: AI policy/advocacy and...
Healthy Cooking Tips from a Lazy Person
http://mdickens.me/2025/08/29/lazy_cooking_tips/ source The problem with most “lazy cooking” advice is that it’s not lazy enough. Today I bring you some...
Healthy Cooking Tips from a Lazy Person
source The problem with most “lazy cooking” advice is that it’s not lazy enough. Today I bring you some truly lazy ways of eating healthy. This is the advice...
Doctor Strange Didn't See Only One Victory Out of 14,000,605 Futures
http://mdickens.me/2025/07/25/doctor_strange/ Or, more accurately, the fact that he said the Avengers only won once can’t be taken as evidence about what he...
Doctor Strange Didn't See Only One Victory out of 14,000,605 Futures
Or, more accurately, the fact that he said the Avengers only won once can’t be taken as evidence about what he really saw. This post contains spoilers for...
Is It So Much to Ask for a Nice Reliable Aggregated X-Risk Forecast?
http://mdickens.me/2025/07/12/aggregated_x-risk_forecasts/ On most questions about the future, I don’t hold a strong view. I read the aggregate prediction of...
Is it so much to ask for a nice reliable aggregated x-risk forecast?
On most questions about the future, I don’t hold a strong view. I read the aggregate prediction of forecasters on Metaculus or Manifold Markets and then I...
Annual Subscription Discounts Usually Aren't Worth It
http://mdickens.me/2025/07/07/annual_subscription_discounts/ It’s common for monthly subscription services to offer a discount if you pay annually instead....
Annual subscription discounts usually aren't worth it
It’s common for monthly subscription services to offer a discount if you pay annually instead. That might be a bad deal. Example: Suppose a one-month...
LLMs might already be conscious
http://mdickens.me/2025/07/05/LLMs_might_already_be_conscious/ Among people who have thought about LLM consciousness, a common belief is something like LLMs...
LLMs might already be conscious
Among people who have thought about LLM consciousness, a common belief is something like LLMs might be conscious soon, but they aren’t yet. How sure are we...
In Which I Defend Fruit's Honor
http://mdickens.me/2025/06/08/defending_fruit's_honor/ Confidence: Likely. I am here to clear fruit’s name against the accusations that have been made. Fruit...
In Which I Defend Fruit's Honor
Confidence: Likely. I am here to clear fruit’s name against the accusations that have been made. Fruit is one of the healthiest types of foods—perhaps the...
Updates Digest: Inaugural Edition
http://mdickens.me/2025/05/30/inaugural_updates_digest/ On many occasions, I edit old posts to make additions, correct mistakes, etc. But there’s no way to...
Updates Digest: Inaugural Edition
On many occasions, I edit old posts to make additions, correct mistakes, etc. But there’s no way to know about updates unless you go digging through the...
Ergodicity economics is not serious, please stop taking it seriously
http://mdickens.me/2025/05/29/ergodicity/ I kept telling myself I wouldn’t write this post because it doesn’t matter. But I’ve seen one too many smart people...
Against Ergodicity Economics
Confidence: Highly likely. I kept telling myself I wouldn’t write this post because it doesn’t matter. But I’ve seen one too many smart people speaking...
Let's take a moment to marvel at how bad the original USDA food pyramid was
http://mdickens.me/2025/05/21/food_pyramid/ The original 1992 version of the USDA Food Pyramid was bad. So bad that people who scrupulously followed the...